“When you are ready”: Pre-Release Avatar clips

Watch "When you are ready" clip here
See all six pre-release clips here

Neytiri calls for her ikran (pterodactyl-like creature) while she and Jake are walking through the trees during his training. This is Jake’s first encounter with an ikran, and so Neytiri tells Jake not to look in the animal’s eyes. She explains to him the partnership between ikran and hunter, then bonds to the ikran, mounts it, and flies through the forest.

This video clip, along with five others, was released by 20th Century Fox in anticipation of the full film’s release. Of the six clips, this is the only one that depicts solely Jake’s interactions with Pandora life outside human influences. Considering that a huge aspect of the movie is Jake’s psychological transformation from human to Na’vi, I found it surprising that there weren’t more pre-release movie clips to portray this. Rather, they stayed within the boundaries of Jake’s mindset as he first goes into the Pandora operation, never providing a look at his personal connection to the Omaticaya. Nothing in these clips is so provocatively radical from American cultural ideas as to spark controversy about topics such as the “white messiah” archetype that arises in the plot. This could be so that the movie plot is not too deeply revealed, or it could be because the audience might quicker connect with the human/Western standpoint.

As for the content of this specific clip itself, there are many possible reasons why this clip was selected for pre-release. First of all, the dialogue is quite enticing, framing a challenge for Jake that he will obviously try to pursue:

Neytiri: To become "taronyu" hunter, you must choose your own Ikran and he must choose you.
Jake Sully: When?
Neytiri: When you are ready.
[makes a whooping sound as she flies off on her Ikran]

It is thus clear that Jake is learning how to be Omaticaya, which seems a very romantic and adventurous pursuit considering the sweeping camera shots as Neytiri flies on the back of her ikran through the forest. These beautiful images of the lush Pandora forest, too, are a reason why this clip was selected. Similar to the films of the ‘60s, which drew people to the movie theater rather than watching programs on a home television set by using epic scenes and footage which could only be fully experienced in the theater, the forest scene could only be truly be appreciated in 3D on a big movie screen. Giving the audience a taste of what seeing Avatar could be like, this clip incorporates such footage. The whimsical creatures, the lush green forest, the profondity in the moment when Neytiri makes a physical bond with the ikran: there is a general sense of awe and wonderment int his clip. This is where the gap between fantasy and reality comes in: people would want to feel for themselves just how extraordinary Pandora is and how awesome Jake’s experiences are.